Thursday, November 18, 2010

I saw another one just the other day, a special new band

In which Weekender's popular Bands Start Up Each And Every Day feature gets uprooted - you weren't going to miss it stuck in there - so we can write about three newish bands all in one go:

There's a lot of post-goth doominess creeping in at the moment, from the Chapman Family at the indiefied end through O Children to Zola Jesus at the Hype Machine end. Somewhere in the middle lie Manchester's Golden Glow, a working name for one Pierre Hall and championed by Jacob from the Drums' free download label Holiday Records, who subsequently invited him/them to a London support slot. While many of his listed influences are from the indiepop end it's more in capsule description like like Chapel Club stripped of the desire to cross over, only really approaching Felt if you imagine Lawrence had been exposed to the Drums' Cure-for-the-modern-man approach. Although the track called The Cure sounds like the Chameleons with gated drums. Elsewhere the guitars are treated or reverbed, the vocal styling is doom-laden, being Manchester there's a little New Order sequencing and the haze is filled with a fug of Velvets narcotics.

Dark Dark Horse have serious Leicester Post-Rock Scene credentials, 50% of them being Jamie Ward, a founder member of Kyte and current touring bassist with Maybeshewill. This is not post-rock; if it's post-anything it's ambitious electro. Sometimes it's too easy to listen to vocal-led minimally glitchy electronics with pop leanings and wonder why Ben and Jimmy don't just have done with it and make a second album together, but these down-tempo delights ring more of Ulrich Schnauss on downers or the twisted electronic moments of the Notwist.

teamABC are at core Wulfrunian Stef Purenins, who starts his favourite bands influence list "Johnny Foreigner, Los Campesinos, Jetplane Landing". MOTHER! Over the three releases from the last year - Yesses, Noes & Volcanoes, Fire EP and Water EP, all of which are free downloads via Bandcamp - you can hear quite a bit of mainlining Hold On Now Youngster, but also a dose of Shrag-like boy-girl collapsible pop, a bit of Bearsuit's likeably quavering (a very apt word for Purenins' vocal range) keyboard sugar rush and the sort of half-hidden melodic spike Big Scary Monsters often fall for - think JoFo's briefly lauded mate Sam Isaac.

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